Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
4.0
1.8
Journals
Fluids
Special Issues
CFD Applications in Environmental Engineering
share announcement

CFD Applications in Environmental Engineering

A special issue of Fluids (ISSN 2311-5521). This special issue belongs to the section "Geophysical and Environmental Fluid Mechanics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2025) | Viewed by 12849

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Filiberto Hueyotl-Zahuantitla

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Faculty of Sciences in Physics and Mathematics, Autonomous University of Chiapas, Tuxtla Gutiérrez 29050, Mexico
2. National Council of Humanities, Sciences and Technologies, Mexico City 03940, Mexico
Interests: CFD on earth and astrophysical flows; radiative transfer; data analysis and visualization techniques; special interest in multidisciplinary projects
Dr. Mario Aguirre López

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor Assistant
Faculty of Sciences in Physics and Mathematics, Autonomous University of Chiapas, Tuxtla Gutiérrez 29050, Mexico
Interests: buildings and vehicle design; CFD applications; sports aerodynamics; applied optimization; engineering mathematics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is an invaluable tool that has been broadly used to test and predict the behavior of gasses, liquids, plasmas, soils, and fluid–structure interactions dealing with the sustainability and resilience of natural ecosystems and urban environments. Challenges related to air pollution, renewable energy, climate change, and water quality are among the most frequently addressed, and they define the core of this Special Issue. Due to the growing interest in predicting the performance of devices that could be used in future missions, we welcome papers addressing those challenges not only on Earth but also in extraterrestrial environments.

The scope of this Special Issue includes, but is not limited to, the following topics:

  • Pollution dispersion and mitigation;
  • Supersonic flows in combustion and detonation;
  • Wave and wind energy generation;
  • Inshore and offshore winds;
  • Weather forecasting;
  • Aerodynamic design of vehicles;
  • Percolation and filtering of water;
  • CFD in extraterrestrial environments (atmospheres and seas);
  • Grid based vs SPH simulations.

Dr. Filiberto Hueyotl-Zahuantitla
Guest Editor

Dr. Mario Aguirre López
Guest Editor Assistant

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Fluids is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • CFD applications
  • air pollution
  • water quality
  • eco-friendly designs
  • climate change
  • extraterrestrial environments
  • environmental modeling

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (6 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

27 pages, 14936 KB  
Article
Experimentally Validated Discrete Phase Model for PM2.5 and PM10 with Numerical Transport Mapping
by Ren Paulo Estaquio, Ma Kevina Canlas, Neil Astrologo, Job Immanuel Encarnacion, Joshua Agar, Ken Bryan Fernandez, Julius Rhoan Lustro and Joseph Gerard Reyes
Fluids 2026, 11(4), 90; https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids11040090 - 29 Mar 2026
Viewed by 483
Abstract
Indoor exposure to particulate matter (PM) depends on ventilation-driven transport, yet sensor placement in real rooms is often based on limited point data. This study develops and experimentally validates a transient CFD framework, using RANS airflow coupled with Lagrangian discrete phase tracking, to [...] Read more.
Indoor exposure to particulate matter (PM) depends on ventilation-driven transport, yet sensor placement in real rooms is often based on limited point data. This study develops and experimentally validates a transient CFD framework, using RANS airflow coupled with Lagrangian discrete phase tracking, to map PM2.5 and PM10 in a full-scale 2.0 × 3.0 × 2.5 m bedroom with a fixed, non-oscillating pedestal fan and an open window. Airflow was verified by grid independence and validated against 10-point velocity measurements (RMSE = 0.108 m·s−1). Incense experiments (≈31 min burn) provided PM time series over the first 60 min at 16 locations on two heights; emission rate, burning time, and air-change rate (1.96–5.39 ACH) were calibrated so that accepted models achieved aggregate R2 > 0.90. Spatial mapping on a 0.5 m grid shows that PM behavior is governed primarily by airflow-defined accumulation pockets rather than by source proximity alone. A near-source region consistently captured strong early-time peaks, whereas remote low-exchange pockets remained elevated during the decay phase. For PM2.5, the most persistent hotspot is a ceiling-adjacent recirculation pocket, while for PM10, gravitational settling shifted the dominant hotspots toward floor-layer, low-velocity regions. An exposure score combining normalized peak and time-averaged concentrations, interpreted together with particle-track persistence metrics, distinguished transiently traversed regions from true retention pockets. The results show that sensor placement should follow the monitoring objective: near-source regions are more responsive to peak events, ceiling pockets are more suitable for persistent PM2.5 monitoring, and floor hotspots are more critical for PM10. No single fixed sensor location adequately represents both particle sizes in the present bedroom and ventilation configuration. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue CFD Applications in Environmental Engineering)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

24 pages, 9747 KB  
Article
Turbulent Flow Analysis of a Representative Low-Height Urban Landscape in Mexico
by Cecilia Ibarra-Hernández, Luis Hernández-García, Rodolfo Nájera-Sanchez, Enriqueta Arriaga-Gomez, Sergio Martínez-Delgadillo, Diana Medellín-Salazar and Alejandro Alonzo García
Fluids 2026, 11(1), 23; https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids11010023 - 16 Jan 2026
Viewed by 484
Abstract
This article analyzes the applications of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in addressing the issue of flow patterns in a realistic urban landscape, specifically in the Metropolitan Area of Monterrey. CFD enables the simulation of physical phenomena such as turbulence, which is useful for [...] Read more.
This article analyzes the applications of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in addressing the issue of flow patterns in a realistic urban landscape, specifically in the Metropolitan Area of Monterrey. CFD enables the simulation of physical phenomena such as turbulence, which is useful for studying the transport behavior of pollutants in urban environments. The computational model was obtained from satellite imaging and covered a surface of about 1.134 km × 1.227 km. It was composed of 173 urban blocks, representing around 3570 houses, including hospitals, schools, recreation centers and other gathering places. The population of the urban landscape was estimated at around 11,400 inhabitants. Three velocity scenarios, low, average, and high (air gusts), were simulated, using data from a local weather station. The Reynolds numbers (Re) ranged from 1.9 × 106 to 21.2 × 106, falling within the fully developed turbulence regime, which was modeled using the renormalization group (RNG) k–ε turbulence model. Results showed that the mean velocity patterns were preserved independent of the Reynolds number (Re) and were characterized by regions of high velocity in the main avenues, as well as other regions of low velocity between urban blocks. This methodology may also be applicable for understanding the flow patterns of similar urban regions composed of irregularly arranged low-rise blocks. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue CFD Applications in Environmental Engineering)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

17 pages, 5030 KB  
Article
Mitigating Airborne Infection Transmission in the Common Area of Inpatient Wards—A Case Study
by Xiangdong Li, Kevin Kevin, Wai Kit Lam, Andrew Ooi, Cameron Zachreson, Nicholas Geard, Loukas Tsigaras, Samantha Bates, Forbes McGain, Lidia Morawska, Marion Kainer and Jason Monty
Fluids 2025, 10(10), 267; https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids10100267 - 14 Oct 2025
Viewed by 1883
Abstract
In a hospital ward, transmission of airborne pathogens can occur in any area where people breathe the same air. These areas include patient rooms and specialised treatment rooms, as well as corridors and common areas. Numerous studies have been conducted to investigate the [...] Read more.
In a hospital ward, transmission of airborne pathogens can occur in any area where people breathe the same air. These areas include patient rooms and specialised treatment rooms, as well as corridors and common areas. Numerous studies have been conducted to investigate the risk of airborne transmission within hospital rooms where patient care activities take place; however, studies assessing the risk of exposure to airborne pathogens in common areas such as nurse stations and corridors, in which healthcare workers spend up to 63% of their time, are very rare. In this study, we addressed this gap by simulating aerosol transport in the common area of a real inpatient ward encompassing different types of patient rooms and equipped with a mixing ventilation system. The risk of airborne transmission of COVID-19 in the ward was evaluated using a spatially resolved risk model, coupled with the clinical and pathological data on SARS-CoV-2 infection. The results showed that the central-return ventilation system causes directional air flows in the corridors, which enhanced long-distance aerosol transport and were conducive to infection transmission between different rooms. An improved ventilation system was proposed that aimed to reduce air mixing and minimise directional air flows. The improvement involved only rearrangement of air supply and exhaust vents, but led to significant reductions in both particle residence time and travelling distance within the ward, contributing to a nearly two-fold increase and 60% decrease in the areas of low-risk and high-risk zones, respectively, resulting in a 34% reduction in the overall infection probability in the studied area. This study demonstrated the potential of preventing hospital-acquired infection (HAI) via engineering controls and provided recommendations for future studies to assess novel ventilation configurations to reduce transmission risk. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue CFD Applications in Environmental Engineering)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

27 pages, 16552 KB  
Article
Vertical Dense Jets in Crossflows: A Preliminary Study with Lattice Boltzmann Methods
by Maria Grazia Giordano, Jérôme Jacob, Piergiorgio Fusco, Sabina Tangaro and Daniela Malcangio
Fluids 2025, 10(6), 159; https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids10060159 - 16 Jun 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1059
Abstract
The dramatic increase in domestic and industrial waste over recent centuries has significantly polluted water bodies, threatening aquatic life and human activities such as drinking, recreation, and commerce. Understanding pollutant dispersion is essential for designing effective waste management systems, employing both experimental and [...] Read more.
The dramatic increase in domestic and industrial waste over recent centuries has significantly polluted water bodies, threatening aquatic life and human activities such as drinking, recreation, and commerce. Understanding pollutant dispersion is essential for designing effective waste management systems, employing both experimental and computational techniques. Among Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) techniques, the Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) has emerged as a novel approach based on a discretized Boltzmann equation. The versatility and parallelization capability of this method makes it particularly attractive for fluid dynamics simulations using high-performance computing. Motivated by its successful application across various scientific disciplines, this study explores the potential of LBM to model pollutant mixing and dilution from outfalls into surface water bodies, focusing specifically on vertical dense jets in crossflow (JICF), a key scenario for the diffusion of brine from desalination plants. A full-LBM scheme is employed to model both the hydrodynamics and the transport of the saline concentration field, and Large Eddy Simulations (LES) are employed in the framework of LBM to reduce computational costs typically associated with turbulence modeling, together with a recursive regularization procedure for the collision operator to achieve greater stability. Several key aspects of vertical dense JICF are considered. The simulations successfully capture general flow characteristics corresponding to jets with varying crossflow parameter urF and most of the typical vortical structures associated with JICF. Relevant quantities such as the terminal rise height, the impact distance, the dilution at the terminal rise height, and the dilution at the impact point are compared with experimental results and semi-empirical relations. The results show a systematic underestimation of these quantities, but the key trends are successfully captured, highlighting LBM’s promise as a tool for simulating wastewater dispersion in aquatic environments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue CFD Applications in Environmental Engineering)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

17 pages, 4269 KB  
Article
Optimising Air Change Rates: A CFD Study on Mitigating Pathogen Transmission in Aircraft Cabins
by Jaydon Benn and Lin Tian
Fluids 2025, 10(3), 74; https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids10030074 - 20 Mar 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2070
Abstract
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, understanding airborne pathogen transmission within confined spaces became critically important. The release of infectious aerosols through activities such as breathing, speaking, and coughing poses significant health risks, especially in confined spaces like airplane cabins. This study addresses gaps in [...] Read more.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, understanding airborne pathogen transmission within confined spaces became critically important. The release of infectious aerosols through activities such as breathing, speaking, and coughing poses significant health risks, especially in confined spaces like airplane cabins. This study addresses gaps in the research by evaluating the impact of air changes per hour (ACH) on pathogen transmission in an aircraft cabin using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. A detailed computer-aided design (CAD) model representing half of a four-row section of a Boeing 737 cabin was developed, utilising symmetry boundary conditions to optimise the computational resources while maintaining accuracy. Using ANSYS Fluent 2024, four scenarios were simulated at ACH rates of 15, 20, 25, and 30, with 4 µm pathogens injected into the cabin from a single infector. Airflow patterns and pathogen residence times were analysed for each case. The results indicate that ACH 15 presents the highest risk of pathogen transmission, while increasing the ACH to 20 significantly reduces this risk, with diminishing returns observed beyond ACH 20. Thus, this study underscores the importance of balancing ventilation efficiency, energy consumption, and passenger comfort. The findings provide valuable insights into optimising the ventilation systems to mitigate the airborne transmission in aircraft cabins. Future research should explore higher ACH rates, validate their impact, and conduct a comprehensive optimisation study to further improve the infection control measures. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue CFD Applications in Environmental Engineering)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

15 pages, 74958 KB  
Article
Hybridization of a Micro-Scale Savonius Rotor Using a Helical Darrieus Rotor
by Martin Moreno, Iván Trejo-Zúñiga, Jesús Terrazas, Arturo Díaz-Ponce and Andrés Pérez-Terrazo
Fluids 2025, 10(3), 63; https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids10030063 - 6 Mar 2025
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 5382
Abstract
This study presents a micro-scale hybrid wind turbine that integrates a Savonius rotor with a Helical Darrieus rotor, aiming to enhance energy conversion efficiency and adaptability for decentralized renewable energy generation. The hybrid design leverages the high torque generation of the Savonius rotor [...] Read more.
This study presents a micro-scale hybrid wind turbine that integrates a Savonius rotor with a Helical Darrieus rotor, aiming to enhance energy conversion efficiency and adaptability for decentralized renewable energy generation. The hybrid design leverages the high torque generation of the Savonius rotor and the aerodynamic efficiency of the Helical Darrieus rotor. Computational analyses using CFD simulations and experimental validation with a 3D-printed prototype in a closed wind tunnel were conducted at speeds ranging from 3 to 8 m/s. The results demonstrate that the hybrid turbine achieves a power coefficient of 0.26 at an optimal tip-speed ratio of 2.7, marking a 180% improvement over standalone Savonius rotors. The hybridization process mitigates the low-speed inefficiencies of the Savonius rotor. It compensates for the high-speed limitations of the Darrieus rotor, resulting in a turbine capable of operating efficiently over a wider range of wind speeds. This balanced integration maximizes energy harvesting and improves adaptability to varying wind conditions, achieving balanced and synergistic performance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue CFD Applications in Environmental Engineering)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-6
Back to TopTop